Youmail takes your voicemail to the next level

I get so tired of listening to the same voicemail messages. So when Youmail came across my radar way back in 2006, I was delighted to learn they were planning to consign the ‘hi please leave a message’ traditional nonsense to the dustbin.

Seriously, when was the last time you changed your voicemail message? Precisely. Sort it out! Call up today and change it to something a bit more modern. One of my colleagues hasn’t changed his voicemail message in 5 years. That is seriously OLD.

Better still, if you’re in America, get yourself Youmail.

Key benefits:

1. Get your voicemail online and by phone
2. Set different greetings for different callers. GENIUS!
3. Send voicemail messages to your email (audio, I believe)
4. Keep your messages forever
5. Send unwanted ‘unknown caller’ calls directly to voicemail — I like that a lot!
6. They’ve got a ton of cool voicemail files that you can use (e.g. Psychiatric Hotline: ‘if you are obsessive compulsive, press 1 repeatedly’.)

Yes, you might not want your lawyer or your boss to get a rude or maybe even a funny message… but it can certainly add a bit of humour to the otherwise boring task of leaving a voicemail.

There’s a load of greetings to choose from, all with ratings.

E.g. “Garfield: The person you’re trying to reach is naked in a tub of jello”

I particularly like the idea of sending unwanted callers to the message “Your call cannot be completed at this time” with an AT&T/Cingular little beep at the front to add realism.

The Youmail service is free and they don’t intend ever charging. They recently got a good $1.8 million from Tech Coast Angels and Alex Quilici, formerly AOL’s VP of Voice Services, is now heading them up.

Shame it’s not a UK based service yet!

I wonder if Spinvox could be programmed to do something like this? 😉